To test the performance of the Store 'n' Go Pro, a combination of synthetic and real-world benchmarks were used. To compare the performance against a first generation USB 2.0 drive, a Lexar Media JumpDrive 2.0 Pro was used.

SiSoft's Sandra was used for one of the synthetic benchmarks. The Removable Storage/Flash Benchmark uses file sizes from 512B to 2MB in size. The 32KB and 2MB results are shown below.

Wow! Thinking the results were in error, I ran them over and over. Each time, the Stor 'n' Go Pro was significantly faster than the JumpDrive 2.0 Pro.

The other synthetic benchmark was HD Tach.

HD Tach 2.70

Drive

Random Access Time

Read Burst Speed

Average Read Speed

Stor n Go PRO 256MB

0.4ms

21.4 MB/s

18.9 MB/s

JumpDrive 256MB

0.8ms

5.9 MB/s

5.9 MB/s

Again, the Stor 'n' Go Pro spanks the older JumpDrive 2.0 Pro. Also, the 21.4 MB/s was close to the published speed rating of 23 MB/s claimed for the drive.

Synthetic benchmarks are great for bragging rights. In the end, however, the drive performance in the real world is all that matters. For this test, a 146MB file was transferred from a PC to the flash drives. The length of time required to make the transfer are shown below.

Large File Transfer (146MB)

Drive

Time (in seconds)

Stor n Go PRO 256MB

14.5

JumpDrive 256MB

35.7

Once again, it was no contest. The Stor 'n' Go Pro completed the task in less than half the time it took the JumpDrive 2.0 Pro.

Security

If there is an area of flash drives that I think is still lacking...it is the security applications they use. Personally, when they work, I find them clumsy at best. The Stor 'n' Go Pro drive I tested came with version 5.02 of the V-Key security app. Unfortunately, it was no better than others I have tested.

I tried to Enable the Write protection but got an error.

I got the same error when trying to disable the feature. I used the "Check for Newer Version" and was taken to a generic page on the Verbatim Europe site. Why not to the "Downloads" page? Even better, why doesn't it auto-update?

After digging around, I found and downloaded the V-Key software (it never told me what version I was downloading BEFORE I downloaded it). This version was 1.5.7.17. I have no idea if it was a newer version or not. Thinking I might find a different version on the US site, I tried to download the file there. However, the link to the file pointed to a page that was not found. Each time I searched for the file, the pages looked different. It's possible that they were in the middle of updating their site.

Finally, neither the US nor the European site had a decent FAQ file. The manual for V-Key was 116 pages! However, the Troubleshooting section did not address the "Unable to switch Write Protection on" error. In the end, I just gave up on the feature.

Conclusions

I was amazed at how much faster this drive was than the first USB 2.0 drives. If you do a lot of data transferring, upgrading to this drive will significantly reduce the time it takes for the operations. However, if you need the security features, you may run into frustrating problems. But for pure speed, I have no problem recommending this drive. Did I say it was fast?

Finally, while the drive seemed solid, I wouldn't consider the case "rugged." The Stor 'n' Go seemed well suited for everyday use.